Ismayilova calls on US authorities to help in liberating Azerbaijani political prisoners

A request to press on the Azerbaijani authorities to stop harassing the independent press and civil society, as well as for to release political prisoners was addressed by the journalist Khadija Ismayilova to the US President.

On March 31, the American newspaper "The Washington Post" published a letter of Khadija Ismayilova addressed Barack Obama in the context of the visit of Azeri president Ilham Aliev to the USA to take part in a summit on nuclear security in Washington.

"I'm writing this letter from a prison in Baku, where I'm serving my sentence – 7.5 years in prison for crimes I never committed. I'm a journalist, and my only 'crime' was in investigations of the facts of corruption related to the government and family members of President Ilham Aliev," writes Ismayilova.

In her opinion, "in order to receive Obama's invitation to the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, President of Azerbaijan was forced to release a few political prisoners." However, "in spite of their liberation, they can't leave the country; therefore, no justice has been achieved," believes Ismayilova.

According to Ismayilova, "Aliev is using political prisoners as an object of bargaining in his foreign policy."

In her letter, Ismayilova asks Obama to urge Aliev "to stop his pressure on independent media and civil society", as well as to ask him questions about free and fair elections in Azerbaijan, about release of all political prisoners, and about the time, "when the fundamental freedoms will cease to be a gift and become the law."

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.